Cost of medicine “will not rise”

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Prescription charges will not be increased for the forthcoming year, health minister Mike O’Brien has said.

The cost of a single prescription will remain at £7.20 per item in 2010-11, said Mr O’Brien, who added that the cost of seeing a dentist will also see no increase.

The Government has been reviewing the cost of prescriptions in England and said it will publish its conclusions shortly; people in Wales are not made to pay for medicine, in Northern Ireland prescriptions will be free from next month, and people in Scotland still have to pay but medicine will be free of charge by 2011.

The British Medical Association said charging money for medicine is unfair and has called for them to be scrapped in England.

The money patients in England must pay for a pre-payment certificate (unlimited prescriptions for the year) will stay at £104; a certificate for three months is £28.25.

Mr O’Brien said the upper age limit for free prescriptions will not change.
Copyright Press Association 2010British Medical Association